Defending champs Oliver of Oklahoma State and Easton, Rey of Lehigh, lose in finals.

ST. LOUIS — It may have been St. Patrick's Day, but there was no luck of the Irish for Zack Rey. Or Jordan Oliver. Or Brandon Hatchett. Or Robert Hamlin. Or Joe Kennedy.

All five wrestlers suffered losses on the final day of the 2012 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship at the Scottrade Center.

Rey and Oliver were returning champions who made it all the way back to the finals only to lose. Hatchett was a No. 11 seed who shocked many observers by making it to the finals, and Hamlin, a national runner-up, ended his season fourth while Kennedy ended his career as a first time All-American with an eighth-place finish.

Oliver, the 133-pounder at Oklahoma State from Easton lost a controversial 4-3 decision to Ohio State's Logan Stieber on a questionable buzzer-beating takedown.

Rey, Lehigh's three-time All-American at 285, lost when his late shot on Minnesota's Anthony Nelson ended up as a last-second takedown for Nelson.

Hatchett, Lehigh's 165-pound senior and a two-time All-American, couldn't stop "The Machine," Penn State's David Taylor, who pinned his way to the finals, but at least he didn't get pinned. Taylor did win by technical fall, however.

Oliver (28-2) started it off with a standing takedown seconds into the championship bout against red-shirt freshman Stieber. Stieber got in deep on a raised single about a minute into the period, but Oliver scrambled out of it.

Stieber (33-2) went inner thigh to hit another single in the final minute of the second period and converted for a takedown with about 10 seconds to go for a 4-3 lead heading into the third period.

Oliver got in on a single with 22 seconds left, but Stieber rolled out of it for a restart. Oliver tackled Stieber on the restart, but the Buckeye bodylocked over Oliver's back and didn't let go to deny the score and upset the defending champion.

Oklahoma State coach John Smith argued that a takedown should have been awarded.

"He had control of the legs, wrapped around the legs on both knees," Smith said. "The painful thing is the standpoint that you feel like you scored at the end to win the match.

"He got my legs, I just had to squeeze as hard as I could," Stieber said of Oliver's final shot. "I was a little worried, but I knew I had him high and he wasn't that deep in on me … no, I wasn't too worried. … And then I got scared when the officials needed each other. You never know what's going to happen, but I thought it was right."

Smith felt that Oliver should have tried to keep Stieber more in the middle of the mat instead of wrestling him at the edge, and that he was so aggressive he gave up his lead leg to Stieber's single-leg attack.

Coming in as the No. 11 seed, Hatchett, a two-time All-American, wasn't given even a puncher's chance by most people against Penn State junior David Taylor, and the Penn Stater scored first on an ankle pick 3 seconds into the 165-pound championship bout.

Taylor scored three takedowns in the first and added a reverse in the second to make Hatchett seriously uncomfortable. He added another takedown and rolled him for back points to take a 12-3 lead heading into the final period before earning the technical fall 22-1 with a total of nine takedowns in 5:50. Taylor tore through the 165-pound bracket with five pins and the tech fall. He clinched the Gorriaran Award for the most pins.

"I wasn't getting second again, I'll tell you that," Taylor said, referring to his loss in the finals last season at the hands of Arizona State's Bubba Jenkins, a former Penn State teammate.

Rey got in deep on a single with 10 seconds left in the opening period but could not get the takedown. He chose defense to start the second period and got warned for stalling before a stalemate was called after Nelson earned riding time. Rey finally rolled out, but Nelson had 1:10 in riding time. Nelson chose bottom to start the third and Rey rode him for 12 seconds, enough to erase the riding time point before allowing Nelson to escape.

Rey shot in deep on a ankle with about 20 seconds to go, lost positioning and Nelson covered up for the takedown and the Big Ten's seventh champion of the tournament.

Hamlin started off the morning with a 3-2 win over No. 5 seed Kevin Steinhaus to make the medals round for the third-place match against Appalachian State's No. 9 seed, Austin Trotman.

While Hamlin was the more aggressive of the two in regulation, the much-longer Trotman took two good shots in sudden victory. Hamlin scrambled out of the first after getting in arm in to prevent control, but hit the mat on the second shot with 23 seconds left to end his junior season with a 4-2 loss and a fourth-place finish.

"It's funny because two years ago, just being an All-American was all that mattered to me. It meant everything," said Hamlin, the No. 2 seed who was runner-up at 184 last year. "Now, once you get close, you want it all. I'm just bummed at myself right now because I feel there were some things I could have done better."